Deck 1: Sociology and Stratification

Question 1

The structure of social stratification can be defined as the distribution of resources in society.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Life chances can be defined as people's consumption habits, use of leisure time, and fundamental values.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

People in the same class can vary in their life chances substantially.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The members of different racial and ethnic minority groups are often unequal to one another.

Question 5

Minorities within the middle class, are often unequal to Whites in the middle class.

Question 6

The three systems of ranking in modern societies are by race, gender, and education.

Question 7

The life chances of a woman are similar to that of a man, as long as they are the same race

Question 8

The notion of "life chances" refers to people's:

A) tendency to gamble as one grows old.
B) possession of right of way.
C) ability to share in available goods and services.
D) position in the class hierarchy.
E) income and occupational prestige.

Question 9

The discrepancy in inequality between different racial/ethnic groups in the same class:

A) is caused by difference in cultural patterns.
B) is the result of race and ethnic images media.
C) is helped by multicultural education.
D) reflects the impact of prejudice and discrimination.
E) is mostly an illusion, research has shown that people of the same class have the same quality of life.

Question 10

Ability and hard work are increasingly important, but __________ also remains an important factor in determining social stratification.

A) achievement
B) ascription
C) luck
D) the ability to lie well
E) mother nature

Question 11

People in the same ___________ tend to be relatively equal to one another in terms of valued resources:

A) gender
B) class
C) race
D) room
E) age bracket

Question 12

Women and men continue to be unequal to one another in terms of :

A) sexual appetite.
B) career goals and workforce orientation.
C) the ability to perceive the more subtle forms of discrimination.
D) intelligence.
E) income and occupational prestige.

Question 13

Ideal types:

A) identify the individuals that are the most successful within the three systems of domination.
B) refer to the distribution of income and occupational prestige.
C) constitute the American Dream.
D) identify the characteristics of a social phenomenon in the purest form possible.
E) suggest the ability to type above average.

Question 14

According to Marx, increases in productivity meant that only the very rich could obtain the necessities of life.

Question 15

Marx believed that a communist society would allow the free development of each as the condition for the free development of all.

Question 16

As indicated in the Communist Manifesto, the structure of social stratification should no longer involve the exploitation of the few by the many.

Question 17

According to Marx, because they do not own capital, most people must sell their ability to work in order to survive.

Question 18

Marx's hypothesis - the greater the economic development, the greater the inequality - is especially prevalent in today's society.

Question 19

Karl Marx asserted that collective control of the economy by the people is:

A) a very bad idea.
B) historically inevitable.
C) an unlikely event.
D) a process that will only serve the ruling elite.
E) inherent to the nature of capitalism.

Question 20

Marx asserted that the stratification structure becomes more rigid in capitalism due to:

A) the extent and longevity of female authority.
B) higher levels of educational attainment.
C) the random trends of the economy
D) a small class of capitalists controlling the distribution of resources.
E) the warlike nature of humans.

Question 21

Marx, in his greatest work, Capital, documented the capitalists' attempts at ____________________ in order to secure greater profit for themselves.

A) helping disabled individuals gain access to their businesses
B) charitable work
C) brainwashing the public
D) lengthening the working day and raising productivity
E) shortening the working day and lowering productivity

Question 22

Marx divided the class structure into two parts:

A) the "haves" and the "have-nots".
B) the upper and middle class.
C) the lower-middle and the upper-middle class.
D) structured and unstructured.
E) the bourgeoisie and proletarians.

Question 23

According to Marx, the hidden impact of ____________ is to make the masses blind to their interest in changing the status quo.

A) college athletics
B) religious teaching
C) higher education
D) television advertising
E) drugs, like opium.

Question 24

Marx believed that there would be a transition from a capitalistic society to a communist society because of:

A) proletarians' realization of exploitation, leading to a class revolt.
B) religious teachings.
C) the class struggles between the bourgeoisies.
D) globalization.
E) the notion of history repeating itself.

Question 25

Marx's writings included important themes that contributed to understanding stratification. These themes include:

A) anomie, sex and globalization.
B) social structure, opportunity, class conflict, power, and alienation.
C) religion and politics.
D) money, power and respect.
E) class unification, resolution, education, opportunity, and suicide.

Question 26

According to Weber, a class comprises all those sharing similar life chances based on their economic interests.

Question 27

Weber asserted that people maintain their status by discriminating against others.

Question 28

Weber's emphasis on the way status influences lifestyle is important because it sensitizes observers to the fact that people understand their location in the stratification hierarchy and actively maintain it.

Question 29

Weber's model of class structure includes owners of capital and nonowners of capital.

Question 30

Weber observed that industrialization, capitalism, and scientific advances combined to produce insignificant changes in the occupational structure.

Question 31

Unlike Marx, Weber helped lay the ground work for objective social scientific research by:

A) describing the revolutionary implications of Marx's work
B) outlining a manifesto for change
C) performing the first quantitative analysis of social mobility
D) criticizing Lenski's arguments
E) arguing that research should be value free, as unbiased and objective as possible.

Question 32

Weber stressed that people behave in terms of both their economic interests and:

A) their values.
B) their level of oppression.
C) their brain chemistry.
D) their religiosity.
E) personal tastes.

Question 33

Weber used the concept _______ to refer to the values people hold and the evaluations they make of others' lifestyle.

A) social setting
B) generation
C) retinue
D) status
E) religion

Question 34

According to Weber, people act to maintain their lifestyle and pass on their advantages to their children by all of the following means, except:

A) Families extend hospitality only to social equals.
B) Families restrict potential marriage partners to social equals.
C) Families seek to build friendships with those who have fewer resources.
D) Families practice unique social conventions and activities.
E) Families try to monopolize "privileged modes of acquisition," such as their occupational skills or capital.

Question 35

Weber observed that the protection of "privileged modes of acquisition" also occurs at a(n) ______________level as classes exercise their power to protect their interests.

A) collective
B) personal
C) increased
D) decreased
E) intergroup

Question 36

Davis and Moore argue that the hidden function of stratification is to insure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons.

Question 37

Davis and Moore claim that a few positions in each area are more important for societal survival than others and that they are also more difficult to fill because people tend to avoid difficult work.

Question 38

Davis and Moore took an empirical generalization, the existence of stratification, and transformed it into a functional necessity, thus avoiding many key issues in the study of inequality.

Question 39

Attempting to uncover the functions of poverty, unemployment, and other social facts is not really useful to the study of stratification.

Question 40

According to Davis and Moore, stratification functions to insure each society's ________.

A) success
B) survival
C) quality of life
D) particular form of oppression
E) chances to compete with other societies

Question 41

According to Davis and Moore, a division of labor exists in which positions are clustered in four functionally necessary areas. Which of the following is NOT one of those areas?

A) economic
B) political
C) technological
D) recreational
E) religious

Question 42

Functionalism, the theoretical paradigm used by Davis and Moore, provides a useful way of:

A) identifying the parts of the social structure.
B) predicting future events
C) analyzing historical phenomena and present social conditions
D) understanding class struggle.
E) understanding how the human body works.

Question 43

Dahrendorf asserted that the more several conflicts overlap with one another, the greater their intensity.

Question 44

In stating his propositions formally, Dahrendorf took theoretical analyses to a new level of sophistication.

Question 45

Dahrendorf asserted all but which of the following propositions:

A) Every society is at every point subject to change.
B) Every society displays dissent and conflict at every point.
C) Every society will fail in time.
D) Every element in a society renders a contribution to its disintegration and change.
E) Every society is based on the coercion of some of its members by others.

Question 46

Dahrendorf is easy to criticize, but this is because he made his assumptions:

A) explicit, clearly identified his variables, defined them, and stated how they covary.
B) incorrectly.
C) without care to the empirical world, that is, his generalizations could not be tested.
D) in German.
E) as he spoke in tongues, communing with Karl Marx.

Question 47

In order to explain the basis of stratification, Lenski focuses on the distribution of food within societies.

Question 48

According to Lenski, fate will determine the distribution of nearly all of the surplus possessed by a society.

Question 49

In order to explain why the stratification structure varies from one society to another, Lenski focused on two main factors: the amount of natural resources available and types of family structures.

Question 50

Lenski argues that advanced industrial societies will move even further from the traditional elitist ideal, but this trend will stop substantially short of the egalitarian ideal in which power and privilege are shared equally.

Question 51

Lenski demonstrated ________________ in all societies over the course of history.

A) how people behave
B) the "powers of the force"
C) effective communication styles
D) the utility of sociologists
E) who gets what and why

Question 52

Lenski hypothesized that people will share the product of their labor to the extent required to insure the survival and continued productivity of:

A) the powerful members of society.
B) others whose actions are beneficial to themselves.
C) the weakest members of society.
D) children and the elderly
E) their own kin.

Question 53

Lenski hypothesized that the greater the surplus of goods and services in a society, the more _____________ determines their distribution.

A) Industrialization
B) Division of labor
C) Power
D) Status
E) Capitalism

Question 54

Lenski suggested that the greater the level of ________ and the more democratic the state, the less inequality.

A) technology
B) freedom
C) unemployment
D) food
E) diversity

Question 55

Capitalism refers to the production of goods and services in a closed market for the purpose of making profit.

Question 56

The American Dream can be defined as the ideology shared by nearly all citizens that everyone born into wealth has the ability to achieve economic success.

Question 57

According to Merton, anomie refers to the connection between cultural values and the legitimate means to achieve them.

Question 58

Although opportunity is great and everyone is supposed to strive for success, built in restrictions limit the legally approved means for achieving this goal.

Question 59

The five responses towards an anomic society, described by Merton, include conformity, ritualistic, retreatism, innovation, and rebellion.

Question 60

According to Weber, these dynamic processes combine to create modern societies:

A) education and socialization.
B) conformity, ritualistic, retreatism, innovation, and rebellion.
C) media and technology.
D) industrialization, capitalism, science, democracy, rule of law, and culture of capitalism.
E) bureaucracy and the law system.

Question 61

________________ refers to a set of values that emphasize occupational achievement, individualism, universalism, rationality, activism, and making money.

A) Success
B) Culture of capitalism
C) American Dream
D) Anomie
E) Baseball

Question 62

According to Merton, people respond to an anomic society in the following ways except:

A) creating bonds with upper class so they no longer have to work.
B) nearly everyone works hard and tries the best they can.
C) rejecting success goals but continue to go through the motions.
D) getting around the structurally based barriers by taking illegal shortcuts.
E) making an effort to change the existing cultural and social structure rather than to accommodate efforts within the structure.

Question 63

The paradox of _____________ is that while opportunity is restricted, it is also far greater than it was in the past.

A) anomie
B) class
C) preindustrialization
D)rebellion
E) modernity

Question 64

Western industrial societies share a common cultural heritage and display advanced economies

Question 65

The facts of nature, social life, even people's unconscious motives can be discovered and historical and cross-national data provide an empirical basis for such queries.

Question 66

Weber's tactic is to begin by gathering data, which are then explained. This explanation is often multivariate in form, but the variables are related statistically rather than by other means.

Question 67

Sociology at its best looks at the data along two dimensions:

A) long term and short term.
B) historical and cross-national
C) post-modern and constructionist
D) qualitative and quantitative.
E) problem solving and descriptive.

Question 68

Weber wanted to understand why capitalism as an economic system arose in Western Europe and ushered in modern life. Thus, he performed a _________ by systematically comparing various Western nations

A) statistical analysis
B) voodoo dance
C) educated guess
D) logical experiment
E) series of interviews

Question 69

As a result of the __________________, ethical standards, and a combination of other dynamic changes, a society based on class with an increasing emphasis on achievement was created.

A) Baptist Reformation
B) Protestant Reformation
C) Civil Rights Movement
D) industrialization
E) educational system

Question 70

Each level of analysis not only provides different data, the explanatory variables differ as well.

Question 71

Good sociology always starts with the structural level of analysis.

Question 72

Socialization is an active (not a passive) process and it varies by class, race, and gender.

Question 73

The structure of stratification is external to individuals.

Question 74

The term __________ refers to the life-long process by which individuals learn norms and values, internalize motivations and (unconscious) needs, develop intellectual and social skills, and enact roles as they participate in the society.

A) socialization
B) growing up
C) maturation
D) dramaturgy
E) psychological development

Question 75

It is not possible to understand social stratification in the United States without focusing on ______________.

A) individual qualities
B) astronomical data
C) structural variables
D) faith and cultural belief
E) yourself, and your placement in the society

Question 76

The class structure hypothesis states: the lower the social class,

A) the less we should care about them
B) the more choices people have and the more effective they are in solving problems.
C) the less socialized people are
D) the more important it is to ask questions
E) the fewer the choices people have and the less effective they are in solving problems.

Question 77

In the study of stratification (and other topics), sociologists are concerned with two levels of analysis:

A) true and not true.
B) individual and structural.
C) constructionist and postmodernist.
D) none of these.
E) historical and educational.

Question 78

People with different interests often act in concert and discriminate against others, even though they are not formally organized into groups.

Question 79

Power is confined to individuals.

Question 80

The so-called "trickle down effect" and similar arguments are veils, designed to hide the way in which the tax system channels income up rather than down.